Squidoo is a new social site with a twist. The benefit of creating a Squidoo lens is monetary in nature as they share the advertising revenue with you based on the traffic that your page and site generates. This is an added bonus to anyone who knows how to get some real traffic to their Squidoo Lens.
Before you can begin to build your Squidoo lens you will have to have an account with Squidoo. You can easily sign up for a free membership with a username and password associated with an email account. You are allowed to have 10 lens/pages per email account. You will receive a confirmation email and once confirmed your account will be activated and you will be able to create your own lens.
Before you start creating your own lens it would be a good idea to do some research on the topic that you would like to create. There are many different niches out there that you can target but not all niches are created equal. Some have much higher values for Pay Per Click and some have better values for affiliate programs or digital products. You will have to identify the niche that you would like to create your lens prior to its creation. This will help optimize the process as well as give you the maximum results.
Now that you have signed up for Squidoo you will want to log-in and go to make a lens. You will want to optimize it to your niche. You will have to find some of the top keyword search terms that are searched for by using a keyword tool. Use those terms in your lens title for example if you have chosen dog training as your niche you will want to include the phrase dog-training as the name of your lens.
Once you have created your URL you will need to select the category that best suits your niche. Next you will have to select the rating for your lens. Unless you have something that is x-rated or very adult you will most likely have G rated content. Next you will have to add your keywords to the lens. This will help the search engines identify what your page is about and possibly help you get ranked for that term. That is not a give in but it is a possibility. You should pick your best 3 terms and input them at this stage.
You should now be given the option to edit your Squidoo lens. Take a look at the content that you want to add. A good idea would be to take a look at other sites that are related to your niche to get some ideas as to the layout and the content. Another smart idea would be to add links to other related sites as well as to your sites as well. Make sure that they are related links though. Do not add a sports link to a dog training site. It would not be related and most likely you will not receive any good traffic from it.
Change the lens to reflect your own personality. After all this should reflect you and give it that personal touch. Don’t expect to become a millionaire off of one lens but if you create enough lens’s you can expect to receive a decent residual return over time.
I just returned from a fantastic 10 day vacation in Arizona. After a bit of car trouble (expensive transmission problems – OUCH) in Central California, we made it to our first stop, beautiful Barstow, California (near Hinkley, the toxic town featured in the movie Erin Brockovich). We didn’t get to bed until 2 AM the first night and had to be back on the road at 6 AM to get to the Grand Canyon in time to complete our 8 mile hike into the canyon before it got dark. We finished our 3 hour hike down into the canyon just as the sun was setting. Our destination was the Havasupai Indian Reservation deep in the Grand Canyon. Check out the beautiful pictures at www.havasupaitribe.com
After two longs days of travel and a beautiful but exhausting hike into the canyon, we literally stumbled into the village on the Havasupai Reservation. The Grand Canyon is one of the most beautiful places on earth but the Havasupai Reservation is a very depressing place. The homes are very run down, the locals dump their garbage in their yards, horses leave their fragrant trail everywhere, packs of wild dogs scavenge for food and water, and the locals are very lazy and unmotivated.
Everything is brought in via horses and pack mules so there’s very little fresh food. We watched them unload the packages of Cup of
Noodles, Rice A Roni, tons of soda and Gatorade, and coolers full of pre-packed food straight from your local 7 Eleven. Everything they eat in the valley is microwaveable food with tons of preservatives and sodium. The result is that every local is obese and extremely lazy.
There’s one cafe in town that’s supposed to be open from 8 AM until 6 PM which was our only place to eat. Other than that there was a grocery store and a convenience store that sold the wonderful microwave meals. The locals open and close their businesses at will. Sometimes they’re open all day other days they close when they feel like it. If you ask anyone for directions or help, they look at you and say "I don’t know". They grow peaches but no fresh vegetables or other fruits. They don’t make any jewelry or souvenirs to sell to the thousands of tourists that visit every year. They make no effort at all to earn money to improve their life and living conditions. It’s really sad to see a tribe of people lose their traditions and their desire. They’re content to receive their government stipend and just barely survive.
If they were motivated, they could clean up their village and provide more services to the tourists. The tourists would love to spend money on authentic Indian jewelry and souvenirs. They would love to eat authentic Indian food instead of the microwave meals now
served at the cafe. The locals could make a fortune from the tourists by providing basic services and goods that the tourists are expecting. Look at the Indian tribes that have gaming on their reservations. They’re improving their lives and providing opportunity for
their children. The Havasupai have no interest in improving their situation and helping their children thrive instead of just surviving.
They’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
How much money are you leaving on the table in your business? What other goods and services could you provide to your customers so you can earn more money? Have you asked your customers what else you could provide that they would like to buy from you? What are you waiting for?
Until next time,
Ted
P.S. If you enjoyed this blog post please take a moment to bookmark it using the bookmarking icons below. Click here for a video that shows you how to use the social bookmarking icons.
Sphere: Related Content
You’ve found a list of blogs in your niche and you’re ready to start commenting to build a relationship with their readers. How do you know if this is a good blog to comment on? There are a number of factors that determine if this is the right blog for you to comment on.
1. How many other people are commenting on this blog? If nobody else is commenting on the blog then it’s not a popular blog so don’t waste your time. If there are a few comments, try adding your two cents and see what happens.
2. How much traffic does this blog get? Go to Alexa.com and enter the URL of the blog to see how popular this blog is. Look for blogs with low Alexa rankings. The lower the better and you want to comment on blogs that are in the top 100,000 if possible. You can download a toolbar for your browser that makes this easy. I use the Firefox Addon Search Status which gives me instant traffic results at the bottom of my browser window. There’s also a toolbar for Internet Explorer that works well. Check out Alexa.com for the right toolbar for your browser.
3. What is the Google PageRank of the blog you want to comment on? You want to comment on blogs that have a high Google PageRank which means the site is considered to have high quality content in Google’s eyes. Making comments on high PageRank sites will also improve your website or blog’s Google ranking. You can download the Google Toolbar to determine the PageRank of the website or blog you’re visiting. The Search Status Addon for Firefox provides both Google Page Rank and the Alexa rating in one tool.
4. When you find a popular blog to comment on, read the blog posts and the quality of the comments. Do you want to be associated with this crowd? Don’t comment on a popular blog that you can’t relate to. If you’re a management consultant looking to connect with C level executives, commenting on a blog that’s popular with 20-something programmers won’t help you. Your comments will go over their head and their comments will be in lingo that you don’t understand. Look for blogs with comments coming from your target audience.
5. Remember to read past posts and comments so you get into the flow of the conversation. You want to continue that existing conversation and add value to the conversation. You don’t have to agree with what’s being said and it’s okay to state an oposing opinion. If fact, being controversial is a good way to attract attention.
6. Be professional and be honest. Don’t try to be someone you’re not when commenting on blogs because people will read right through you. Remember that you’re trying to build long-term relationships with these readers so they’ll visit your blog or website so they’ll hire you or buy your products.
7. Remember to always use your real name when commenting and add your URL to the comment form. If you don’t feel comfortable using your real name and URL then you shouldn’t be posting on that blog.
8. Don’t try to sell your product or services in your comments. Just continue the existing conversation and answer questions or add value that demonstrates your expertise.
9. Don’t add your website URL in the comment. It’s okay to add a URL to another website that adds value to the conversation but promoting your own website will turn people off. It is okay to direct them to your website if you’re directing them directly to an article you wrote that solves their problem.
10. Find a few quality blogs and websites and participate on a regular basis so you build a relationship with the readers. It’s better to focus your effort on 2 or 3 high quality blogs then to spread yourself over 20 blogs where you’re only making a few comments.
Follow these steps and you’ll have traffic to your blog or website in no time. Remember it’s all about continuing the existing conversation and adding high quality comments that demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.
If you enjoyed this article please take a moment and bookmark this post on your favorite bookmarking website. To learn how to do this click here to watch this simple video.
Sphere: Related Content
Web 2.0 websites
www.blogrush.com
Social Bookmarking sites
del.icio.us
ma.gnolia.com
Social networking sites
News/Article submission sites
www.bloglines.com
Video/slide submission sites
Podcasting sites
www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Podcasts/Directories
podcasts.yahoo.com
Miscellaneous sites
What are the best social networking and social news sites on the internet? Every day new sites pop up and the field is getting pretty crowded. What sites do you like and why do you like them? What keeps you coming back day after day? Why do some sites fade away and others keep going month after month (notice I didn’t say year after year?)
Social bookmarking, social networking and social news is all the rage these days. You can get instant search engine rankings if you leverage these websites to your advantage. What are the best sites to use? The list is ever-changing so you have to keep track of which ones are working and which aren’t. Here’s a great list of the best social websites today. The list changes frequently so subscribe to this blog for updates.
Until next time,
Ted
Sphere: Related Content